as long as i can take a calculator and paper to scratch on, im in, i suck at the maths stuff. like, if timmy is james' little brother, and james is the dog's stepson, how old will the dog's puppies be by the time timmy realises he's gay?my brain refuses to work that shit out.

as long as i can take a calculator and paper to scratch on, im in, i suck at the maths stuff. like, if timmy is james' little brother, and james is the dog's stepson, how old will the dog's puppies be by the time timmy realises he's gay?my brain refuses to work that shit out.

There are some serious problems with IQ tests. Stephen Jay Gould's Mismeasure of Man is good on this topic, and James Flynn (he of "Flynn effect" fame) has a bunch of research showing the same. Cosma Shalizi has a superb review of Flynn's latest book here: http://www.cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/reviews/flynn-beyond/

There are some serious problems with IQ tests. Stephen Jay Gould's Mismeasure of Man is good on this topic, and James Flynn (he of "Flynn effect" fame) has a bunch of research showing the same.

I agree fully with you Michael - nice post.

I read SJG's Mismeasure Of Man many years ago, unfortunately after I had already joined Mensa, and it changed my views completely. It was this book I referred to during my talk at Mensa Jhb a few weeks ago that upset some of the members (heheh).

It is common course that one can improve your IQ score by practicing the tests. An interesting exercise would be to establish by what margin this can be done. Just practising the tests itself would, of course, not amount to an increase in intellect, but regular mental exercise does expand brainpower. The following is from Flynn in the last of MM's references:

Quote

“The mind is much more like a muscle than we’ve ever realized,” Flynn said. “It needs to get cognitive exercise. It’s not some piece of clay on which you put an indelible mark.”

The biggest problem, of course, is that it's incredibly hard to define intelligence. There is simply no consensus definition (see Pinker on this - in How the Mind Works) so we don't even know what to measure. The notion of G ("general intillgence"), by the way, is a statistical myth: http://cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/weblog/523.html.

(That's another link to Cosma Shalizi's blog. He is, in my honest opinion, the single most intelligent person in the world who blogs. Yeah, yeah... I can't define "intelligence" either. But read him, and see).

Hey, Cosma Shalizi! I stumbled upon his online notebooks ages ago and found them to be a wealth of useful information (especially the recommended reading lists). I didn't realise he blogged. I'll have to check it out.

I did a free IQ test at www.iquotient.net I took that one out of many online IQ tests. I got 125 points in that test, so the result was similar to the one I got some time ago when I was checked by professionals from MENSA (then I had 124 points).